Despite high interest rates and economic uncertainty, Lamar Consolidated ISD continues to lead the Greater Houston area in new home construction, with a 10% increase in housing starts from the previous year and nearly 54,000 future homes in various planning stages, demographers said.

District administrators will now consider a higher growth model when planning for new enrollment due to the accelerated pace of housing development, which equates to one elementary school’s worth of students every year, Zonda Education President Bob Templeton said at the April 15 board meeting.

What’s new?

Demographic firm Zonda introduced a high-growth model for LCISD’s quarterly demographic update that is based on the addition of 5,000 new homes per year, Templeton said. This housing activity—based on the fourth quarter of 2024—will accelerate the number of campuses needed to accommodate new enrollment.
While Templeton recommended the use of the high-growth model in the short-term, he said enrollment could stabilize due to increased tariffs, inflation and state-funded voucher programs that subsidize private school tuition.

How we got here


Templeton also noted the following shifts in housing trends within Houston area:
  • New homes account for a larger share of total home sales, as builders offer discounts to offset high interest rates
  • Existing home prices remain high due to limited supply
While in the Houston-area multifamily housing occupancy remains below 88%, more than 770 units in single-family rental communities are planned across the district, Templeton said.

Additionally, Templeton said LCISD has several large master-planned developments that have begun development since December, including:
  • Hines’ unnamed Fulshear community with 7,000 lots planned
  • Tamarron West in Fulshear with 3,597 multiuse lots planned
  • Brentwood Farms in the Village of Pleak with 1,500 multiuse lots planned
  • Other developments include Evergreen in Rosenberg, Arabella on the Prairie in Richmond and Pecan Ridge in Fulshear
Looking ahead

For the next quarterly report, Zonda officials will incorporate the impact of charter school openings on enrollment, and eventually do the same for private school openings, Templeton said. However, he said homeschooled enrollment data is not currently available through the state.

“We're in a new era in education, and enrollment is more than rooftops and birth rates; it is also about the choice aspect,” he said.


For the ongoing 2024-25 school year, state data shows 3,427 students transferred out of LCISD, almost 10 times the 365 students that transferred in, Community Impact reported. This net loss was lower than neighboring Fort Bend ISD but higher than Katy ISD.

Next steps

Superintendent Roosevelt Nivens emphasized the importance of demographic reports so community members could be informed as the district continues to open new campuses and with anticipated future rezoning discussions to manage capacity.

“We just want to make sure everybody has [this demographic] information, so when it's time to make those decisions, fewer people are caught off guard,” Nivens said.